Baby Steps to Feeling Better

Alright so the worst part of your depressive episode is over and now it’s time to take some action to feel better. Your neck and back probably hurt like hell from not moving much but now it is time to get up and start living again. This part is often trickier than people would expect. People always say things like “Just go for a walk and you’ll feel better”. While this is not entirely untrue it can feel like an impossible task when you just feel like lying in bed and can barely muster the energy to get dressed.

The solution to this is of course to take baby steps. When you start training for a marathon, nobody expects you to do it in the first day. The same goes for your mental health. Set yourself a simple goal for the day. Instead of going outside and facing the public, for exampl,e you can just go outside and sit in your garden for a bit and if that seems like too much, try sitting by an open window. It may seem like a little thing but it will help trust me.

Move a bit. Maybe do some yoga, walk around for a couple of minutes, maybe dance a bit to your favorite song, anything is better than just lying around. This doesn’t mean you have to go running or do an intense workout just stand up for a bit and stretch.

Eat something. I cannot stress how important this is. If you like cooking make yourself a nice breakfast and eat it without guilt. If you can’t eat just yet, make yourself tea, drink some water maybe try eating some fruit or some crackers you’ve got lying around. Your body and your mind are connected and taking care of one will benefit the other and bring you some relief.

And most importantly, do at least one thing you enjoy. And I don’t mean dicking around on the internet you’ve probably already done that. Paint something, listen to music, sing, cook yourself your favorite meal, take a bath, just do one nice thing for yourself.

And last but not least and this is probably the hardest, at least for me, so don’t stress yourself if you are not ready for this: talk to someone. It doesn’t have to be about how you are feeling right now, just call a friend and ask them how they are and how their day was. Hell, you don’t even have to call them, you can just text someone. It will help you feel better and just might make them feel good too to know that someone is thinking of them and wants to talk to them.

So these are my baby steps towards recovery and, I can’t stress this enough: If you can’t do one of these yet then that’s alright, it is not your fault. Just be kind to yourself and try just doing one of these things and the next day you can do a little more and so on. Don’t worry about that thing you feel you are putting off because you don’t have the energy to do it just now. You can’t be expected to go jogging when you have the flu, but don’t worry you’ll get there and it will be alright. Just take it slow and you will get better. You are just beginning to recover and it will take some time and there will be setbacks but just do what you can and gradually you’ll start feeling better again, I can promise you that.

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This is a text widget, which allows you to add text or HTML to your sidebar. You can use them to display text, links, images, HTML, or a combination of these. Edit them in the Widget section of the Customizer.